Entertainment In Brief
The otherworldly origins of the X-Files poster. How much would you pay for the Ten Commandments?
The truth is, indeed, out there
A pie-plate shaped UFO hovering above a patch of trees. The words “I Want to Believe” in white block letters. X Files fans immediately recognize this as the poster that’s been hanging on Fox Mulder’s wall since Day One. So they understand the significance of the new movie’s title, X Files: I Want to Believe. But where did the poster come from?
Created by the show’s production team, it’s widely believed the photo was taken by Billy Meier, a 71-year-old Swiss farmer who claims he’s had more than 100 face-to-face and telepathic visits with aliens since of the age five. He refers to many of these aliens by name — Sfath, Asket, Semjase.
Meier has travelled the world photographing said aliens and their crafts, which he calls beamships. Haunting simply as pieces of art (their authenticity has, not surprisingly, been disputed), most of the images (like the one above left) bear a 1950s feel similar to that of the poster.
But while representatives for Meier’s organization, the Free Community of Interests for the Fringe and Spiritual Sciences and UFOlogical Studies, or FIGU (the acronym works in German), acknowledge the poster seems to be inspired by Meier’s pics, they don’t believe the shot is one of theirs.
“I think the creators of The X Files wanted to avoid a copyright fight with Billy Meier,” says FIGU Switzerland representative Christian Frehner.
Frehner says the ironic thing is that “I Want to Believe” is contradictory to his group’s beliefs, calling it a “really silly sentence and far, far away from everything Billy Meier and FIGU stands for.”
Why?
“We are trying to avoid ‘to believe’ because believing is not knowing,” says Frehner. “The object of ‘belief’ can never be proven and is, therefore, unreal. Belief is the foundation of religions, which, in turn, are responsible for the enslavement of the people’s thinking and acting. We FIGU members are striving for the truth in all things, the facts, logic and natural laws.”
—Marni Weisz
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Artifact
This month’s objet de film
The Ten Commandments
Having trouble telling right from wrong? You need one of four remaining sets of tablets used in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments.
The fibreglass props — hand-painted to look like Mount Sinai’s red
granite — are expected to fetch up to $60,000 (U.S.) when Profiles in
History auctions them off on July 31st and August 1st. Go to
ebayliveauctions.com to make your bid.
The tablets were created by Paramount Studios scenic artist A.J.
Ciraolo for the 1956 epic, which starred the late Charlton Heston as
Moses, hoister of the tablets. Each one measures 24” by 12” or “six
handbreadths,” which is how the real deal was described in ancient
texts.
—Marni Weisz
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COMING AT YOU
Its advocates say it’s the way of the future, the naysayers insist
we’ve been here before. Regardless, with this month’s release of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
— the first live-action feature film shot entirely in digital 3D — we
are on our way to a new era of jump-from-the-screen movies.
Over the next few years dozens of flicks will be made specifically
for 3D release. Meanwhile, theatres are rushing to upgrade projectors
and screens to accommodate the new technology, and cinemas without 3D
capability will show 2D versions of most of these films. Check
Cineplex.com to see if there’s a 3D cinema near you.
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SIX 3D MOVIES TO WATCH FOR:
August 8, 2008:
FLY ME TO THE MOON.
Three bulbous blue flies stow away on the first manned flight to the moon. Listen for the voices of Ed Begley Jr.,
Tim Curry and the man himself, Buzz Aldrin, in this animated feature.
January 23, 2009:
MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D.
The technology returns to its horror roots with a remake of the 1981 slasher about a guy who, 10 years after a series of grisly murders in his hometown, finally returns…only to have the killings start again. Will there be a thrusting pickaxe? Of course!
February 6, 2009:
CORALINE.
From director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) comes this off-kilter animated fantasy about an odd girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who walks through a door and discovers there’s an alternate version of her own life on the other side.
March 27, 2009:
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS.
Reese Witherspoon and Seth Rogen lend their pipes to this 1950s B-movie inspired animated comedy about a girl who’s hit by a meteor (in 3D!) and turns into a giant monster (in 3D!).
December 18, 2009:
AVATAR.
James Cameron hasn’t directed a feature film since 1997’s Titanic. Instead he’s spent much of the past decade obsessed with making the first truly kick-ass 3D movie. The resulting film cost $200-million (U.S.) and stars Australian actor Sam Worthington as an ex-marine sent to settle a faraway planet.
March 5, 2010:
ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
Tim Burton. Giant mushrooms. 3D. That’s enough, no?
—Marni Weisz
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ON HOME TURF
Films shooting across Canada this month
Amelia Earhart probably didn’t spend this much time in Canada when she was alive. A few months ago Hilary Swank
was in Toronto to play Earhart — the groundbreaking female pilot who
mysteriously disappeared during a 1937 flight — for the bio-pic Amelia, and now Amy Adams
is in Burnaby, B.C., to play what promises to be a much lighter version
of Earhart. That’s because Adams’ Earhart is the female lead (and
possibly love interest?) in Ben Stiller’s sequel, Night at the Museum II: Escape from the Smithsonian.
Shooting is underway at Burnaby’s Mammoth Studios and could last until
mid-September. If you live in Burnaby keep your eyes peeled for other
cast members, like Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, Hank Azaria and Owen Wilson, who returns as the miniature cowboy Jedediah.
—Marni Weisz |